You could take # new fellows in a year and divide by test takers and get a fair approximation. Might need to go back in time on the test takers part to account for growth in interest in the actuarial field.

And need to adjust for those shifty Canadians who become FSA without ever taking exam 1.

Canadians can get exam credit for 2/FM, 3/MLC, 4/C, but not 1/P and this is only recognized by CIA & CAS, not SOA. As far as I know, most students are still doing these exams regardless. With the CAS changing its exam syllabus this year, I'm not sure if the exam exemption still applies. Also considering the difficulty of Upper level CAS exams, preliminary exams are basically nothing. Personally the time I spent to prepare and pass CAS exam 5 = total time spent to prepare all 5 preliminary exams.

I'm pretty sure the SOA actually communicated this stat during the FAC that I attended. If I remember correctly, they indicated that only 8% of the people who ever sit for an actuarial exam make it all the way through to Fellowship.

You can count me as one of the people that found that to be a very interesting stat.

I recall something like under 10% from my FAC. I found it interesting as well.

. It's sort of like saying that only 1% of people who take Biology 101 ever get a job as a biologist, so that is obviously an even harder career.

Not exactly the same though - While there are countless paths of careers start from bio 101, only 1 path that starts from taking the first SOA/CAS exams.
Many students take bio 101 for millions (exaggeration here) of reasons than becoming a biologist. I took it to fill out non-major requirement.
In contrast to that, only those who have a plan to become an actuary take the first exam.

Is there any info out there on which preliminary exam do most actuarial students who quit pursuing the designation stop before they reach the ASA/ACAS?

This is an even harder question to answer, because the exams keep changing. Back when I was a student, a lot of folks gave up with Part 4, which was Life Contingencies using a textbook of the same name by Jordan.

And after the prelims, there is a lot more variation in the fellowship exams, because of the SOA/CAS split and the different SOA tracks.

__________________Carol Marler, "Just My Opinion"

Pluto is no longer a planet and I am no longer an actuary. Please take my opinions as non-actuarial.

My latest favorite quotes, updated Apr 5, 2018.

Spoiler:

I should keep these four permanently.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rekrap

JMO is right

Quote:

Originally Posted by campbell

I agree with JMO.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Westley

And def agree w/ JMO.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MG

This. And everything else JMO wrote.

And this all purpose permanent quote:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr T Non-Fan

Yup, it is always someone else's fault.

MORE:
All purpose response for careers forum:

Quote:

Originally Posted by DoctorNo

Depends upon the employer and the situation.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sredni Vashtar

I feel like ERM is 90% buzzwords, and that the underlying agenda is to make sure at least one of your Corporate Officers is not dumb.

By the way, instead of calculating the time from earliest exam to fellowship, those who want a probability number might give more consideration to passing percentage. Sure it varies by exam and by date the exam is given, but the info is far more readily available. And a typical number could easily be used to do a compound probability. Say there are N exams, and the probability of passing each one is P. So a first approximation is

left as an exercise for the student.

__________________Carol Marler, "Just My Opinion"

Pluto is no longer a planet and I am no longer an actuary. Please take my opinions as non-actuarial.

My latest favorite quotes, updated Apr 5, 2018.

Spoiler:

I should keep these four permanently.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rekrap

JMO is right

Quote:

Originally Posted by campbell

I agree with JMO.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Westley

And def agree w/ JMO.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MG

This. And everything else JMO wrote.

And this all purpose permanent quote:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr T Non-Fan

Yup, it is always someone else's fault.

MORE:
All purpose response for careers forum:

Quote:

Originally Posted by DoctorNo

Depends upon the employer and the situation.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sredni Vashtar

I feel like ERM is 90% buzzwords, and that the underlying agenda is to make sure at least one of your Corporate Officers is not dumb.